Padres 6, Rockies 0

Randy Wolf was going to be finished after seven innings, no-hit bid or not.

Wolf held defending NL champion Colorado hitless for 6 2-3 innings and struck out nine, and Brian Giles collected his 1,000th RBI to lead the San Diego Padres to a 6-0 victory over the Rockies on Tuesday night.

Wolf had already thrown more than 100 pitches when he allowed Brad Hawpe's single up the middle with two outs in the seventh.

Padres manager Bud Black, a former big league pitcher, didn't even want to say "no-hitter" afterward in talking about how Wolf would have been finished even if he had retired Hawpe.

"My thinking is, I hope the next guy comes in and doesn't give up a hit and we have a combined ... a combined," Black said, knocking on wood for emphasis. "I'm not going to say the word. We'd have a combined. That's what I'm hoping. I'm not going to go that far."

As it turned out, reliever Kevin Cameron allowed a hit, too, leaving the Padres with an impressive combined two-hitter for their second straight shutout and the third of the season.

"I don't think the decision was mine," Wolf said after earning his first victory with the Padres, following two no-decisions. "Bud made a good point. It's a long year."

It was the first time the teams met since Colorado's 9-8 win in the wild-card tiebreaker at Coors Field on Oct. 1. Matt Holliday never appeared to touch home plate in the 13th inning that night, but umpire Tim McClelland's delayed safe call gave the Rockies a thrilling victory as they rallied for three runs against career saves leader Trevor Hoffman.

The Rockies got only one baserunner as far as second against Wolf (1-0), who had a hand in a six-run rally in the fifth. After inducing Yorvit Torrealba to hit into a force play to end the seventh, the left-hander walked off the field to an ovation from the crowd of 24,439.

"I'll take the six runs and one hit," Wolf said. "It feels great. It was a tight game up until that one inning. I thought it was going to go down to the wire like that. It's like a breath of fresh air when you score six. It makes it a little easier."

Wolf threw 112 pitches. He walked four, including Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton with one out in the first before striking out Holliday and getting Garrett Atkins to hit into a force play. Wolf, who had shoulder surgery in September while with the Los Angeles Dodgers, lowered his ERA to 1.42.

Wolf didn't pitch after July 3 last year due to shoulder soreness. This was his first win since June 28.

His fastball starts low and goes high. "There's an element of deception that always helps," he said.

"He's got a sneaky fastball and he has a way of throwing it in the top part of the zone," Atkins said. "In this ballpark, if you do that, you are going to have a lot of success."

The Padres broke through against Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2) in the fifth, when they got two-run doubles from Giles, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Jim Edmonds. Only two of the six runs were earned because of a throwing error by Jimenez.

The right-hander got into trouble by walking Khalil Greene and Josh Bard. Jimenez fielded Wolf's two-strike bunt, but his throw pulled first baseman Helton off the bag to load the bases. Giles followed with a double off the right-field wall to push his RBI total to 1,000.

Adrian Gonzalez was intentionally walked with two outs and Kouzmanoff doubled just inside the right-field line, the second of his three hits. Edmonds followed with a double to right to chase Jimenez, who threw 48 pitches that inning.

"I was trying to get out of the inning," Jimenez said. "I did it in a bad way and started to overthrow."

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said the bunt play was "the dynamic that changed the inning. After that he just started throwing hard. He wasn't pitching. He got a little outside himself."

Jimenez allowed six hits in 4 2-3 innings, struck out five and walked three.

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